Mr Fowler said: “We have been guilty of not really pursuing it yet but corporate sales and gifting is a massive business, and because ours is such a different business it is getting popular – a cake landing on someone’s desk is going to make the company sending it be more well thought of.”

Established by Mark Joll and Byfords owner Iain Wilson, Sponge now has a factory staff of 20 and turned over around £1.3m in the last financial year.

Around 50% of its orders come from online customers and 50% from trade customers.

Its latest products, cake cards – which contain slices of loaf cake with a personalised message – are on the rise, with orders rising from around 100 a week a year ago to up to 300 a week.

Mr Fowler said: “The cake card has had great traction, especially with corporate customers. Sales are going up week on week.

“This has been a cake summer and the bakery has been very busy,” he added.

Sponge facts

Despite being firmly rooted in rural Norfolk Sponge has made a name for itself around the UK.

Its clients range from Africa Alive, Cromer Pier and Pensthorpe nature reserve to the Merlin Entertainment Group (which owns Alton Towers) and Moonpig.

Director and co-founder Mark Joll said Sponge does “not make any great play” of being a Norfolk company, in order to make itself more appealing on a national level.

“The Norfolk message does not ring as true as being a wacky company that makes really good cakes,” he said.

Here are a few facts about the Sponge bakery:

One factory worker can slice and ice up to 2,500 baby sponges a day.

The bakery gets through around 10,000 eggs a week.

Its ovens can cook up to 700 baby sponges or up to 64 10” cake layers at a time.

On average the factory bakes 12 batches a day – enough to make 384 10” cakes.